Better Luck
by Doodle6721
Summary: Neville Longbottom works at his very own shop in Diagon Alley, caring for magical plants. Hannah Abbott has a black thumb and needs assistance in finding a way to keep her plant alive for more than two days. Neville thinks he can help, in more than 1 way.


**Done as a prize request for a contest on DeviantArt. She wanted HannahxNeville, this is what I provided. Hopefully it was good enough. :)**

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><p>The bell above the door chimed. Neville set his clippers down and shuffled out of the backroom in order to greet the first customer of the day. You see, upon graduating Hogwarts Neville opened up his own shop centered on magical plants. He had everything from Puffapods to Fanged Geranium. It wasn't a big hit, gathering about seven or eight customers a day, but it kept Neville happy.<p>

"G'morning! How can I help you?" Neville called as he maneuvered is way past a particularly nasty patch of Devil's Snare.

"Well," a lady's voice answered, "I've seemed to have some rotten luck with my Tentacula plant. I think that perhaps… perhaps I've killed it. Again."

"Again?" Neville asked, still traversing through the snare. He lifted his foot to take a giant leap over the plant and through the archway to the front of his store. With enough power, he launched off his leg and appeared in the doorway. "I'm here! Umpf!" Neville fell to his face, the devil's snare capturing his foot.

"Oh dear!" Neville looked up to see a frantic blonde women rush over. The vines of the plant crept higher and latched tighter onto Neville's lower half. "Are you ok? Oh-uh… how can help?"

"Well—"

"Should I grab a pair of shears?"

Neville shook his head vigorously. "No, no! That'll only make it worse! C-could you have me my wand?" The woman nodded and scanned the room before identifying the wand's placement. She snatched it up and tossed it to Neville with a fear of getting too close to the rapidly growing plant.

"_Incendio!" _ And with that the plant shrunk back, releasing its grasp on Neville's legs.

The petite woman rushed forward to help scoop the man off of the ground. "Are you alright?" she questioned, panic evident in her voice. "I wish I could have been of more help. I'm rotten with plants. Always have been."

"It's alright," Neville assured her as he brushed dirt off his trousers. "I'm use to this sort of thing. It seems that everything that can go wrong seems to happen to me."

The woman smiled, "Oh, well, you've seem to have gotten a grasp on these situations."

Neville directed his attention away from the soil stains on his clothes and lifted his head to finally get a good glance at the women. Her hair was blonde alright, falling just above her shoulders in a short bob. Her face was round and held a warm smile to accompany her rosy cheeks. Neville blinked. He was sure he knew her. "Hannah?"

"Yes," she nodded. "You remember me? Merlin, it's been years, Neville. I would have thought you'd have forgotten me."

Neville was taken aback. "Me forget you? Well that's absurd. I'm surprised _you_ even remember _me!"_

"Believe me, Neville," Hannah laughed, "you are certainly one that cannot be forgotten."

"Alright," he grinned, "I'll take that as a compliment. Now, what was it you needed again? Something about your Tentacula plant?"

Hannah nodded and picked up the potted plant on the counter. She carried it over towards Neville and frowned. "It was a gift from my mum. It only lasted two days. Seems like I lack a green thumb."

Neville examined the limb greenish leaves draped over the sides of the pot. "Too much fertilizer. But good news is it's not dead."

"Really?" Hannah raised her eyebrow, surprised she hadn't managed to kill it.

"Yes, it's still alive," he assured, escorting the plant to the other side of the room so that he could place it on the windowsill. In this spot the sun would be guaranteed to hit it, allowing for a slow recovery. "However, given your black thumb I think it would be best if I held onto this for a while. First we need to start you out with a simpler plant. For instance," Neville led Hannah into the far corner of the shop where tiny plotted plants sat merrily under a warming charm, "Flitterbloom. It is remarkable similar to Devil's Snare, that nasty contraction over there, in that it has long tentacles. The exception here is that they're harmless."

Hannah bit her lip and shook her head. "No, I'd rather not have that one. Sorry."

"Oh," Neville shrugged, "alright. Any reason?"

"Anthony Goldstein gave it to me as a gift this Christmas. Before our breakup."

"Oh."

Hannah brushed a strand of loose hair back behind her ear and blushed. "Yeah, we're both still a bit tender over the relationship. I wanted to settle down and start a family. He hates kids. You could say we were a perfect match with one huge deal breaker. I'm still working to move on. Even if it has been two months..."

"I-I'm sorry, Hannah. But… huh… look, I've got others. Um… how 'bout this one. It's called an Umbrella Flower. It floats near the ceiling and all you have to do is water it once a day."

Hannah's mouth slowly transformed from a frown into a shy smile. "It is rather pretty. And I do think I'd be able to manage that."

Neville grinned. "Great! It's yours! And while you're taking care of this one I'll be working on restoring your Tentacula back to good health."

"Really?" Hannah beamed. "You'd do that?"

Neville nodded, failing to hide the blush that was beginning to work its way onto his cheeks. He couldn't quite understand it but something about the way Hannah smiled affected him. Somehow Neville knew that he wanted to see her smile more. And he wanted to be the reason for her smiling.

"Well then, I guess I'll be taking this then," Hannah said, taking the Umbrella Flower seedling into her hands. She fished around in her purse to gather up a few galleons.

Neville shook his head. "This one's on me, Hannah. I won't have you paying until you've learned how to properly take care of plants."

Hannah giggled, "I guess I'll have to work hard then. Who knows? Maybe I'll have better luck this time."

"I'm sure you will," Neville nodded as she walked toward the door. He hoped not only to cure her black thumb but maybe also her heart. Neville wanted nothing more than to fix that.

She pushed it open, hovering half in the store and half in the chilly air of Diagon Alley. "Thank you, Neville. For everything."

"You're welcome," he smiled. And as she turned to abandon the shop completely, Neville reacted, surprising even himself. "Hannah!"

She whipped around to see a flustered Neville shuffling his way towards her. "Yes?"

"Maybe- maybe we c-could catch up… have some tea."

"Sure," she smiled. "I'd like that."


End file.
